RALEIGH, N.C. -- Matthew Tkachuk didn't need four overtimes to score the game-winning goal this time. He just needed one to give the Florida Panthers a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference finals over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Panthers star winger's power-play goal at 1:51 of the first overtime gave his team a 2-1 win on Saturday night. Game 1 of the conference final was the sixth-longest Stanley Cup playoff game in NHL history, lasting four overtimes until Tkachuk's goal at 19:47.

On Saturday, with Carolina forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the penalty box for hooking, the Panthers' Sam Bennett passed to Sam Reinhart, who found Tkachuk for a quick shot that beat goaltender Antti Raanta high.

"It's been a lot of hockey in the last two games. It's just great to end it early," said Tkachuk, who netted his seventh goal of the playoffs. "Great pass to start by Benny, and a great pass by Rhino there to make it really, really easy for me. It was awesome."

The Panthers improved to 6-0 in overtimes during this playoff run. For Tkachuk, it was his third overtime winner of the postseason.

Just like he did when the Panthers won Game 1 in the fourth overtime, Tkachuk pointed to the exit of the rink and led his Panthers off the ice to celebrate.

For the Hurricanes, it was a frustrating night full of close calls and missed opportunities. They came out blazing in the first period, at one point outshooting Florida 17-1. They went 0-for-3 on the power play after converting twice in Game 1.

"This is not new to us. We've been kicked in the teeth here a lot these last few years, and we've always responded," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

Carolina opened the scoring just 1:43 into the game. Winger Stefan Noesen skated in with a shot that Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky blocked to the opposite corner. That's where Sebastian Aho found it and quickly sent a pass to a cutting Jalen Chatfield, who deflected it past Bobrovsky for his first career playoff goal.

Florida appeared to tie the game moments later on a Gustav Forsling shot that sailed through traffic. But Carolina used a coach's challenge, believing the play was offside. Video review determined Panthers center Bennett didn't have possession of the puck, as he crossed the blueline before it did. It was ruled no goal, and the Hurricanes maintained their lead.

The Hurricanes had a goal of their own taken off the board with 4:04 left in the period. A nice passing play from forward Mackenzie MacEachern -- who replaced Derek Stepan in the lineup for Game 2 -- set up a Jack Drury shot that beat Bobrovsky to the high glove side. But the Panthers used a coach's challenge, and the officials determined the play was offside. No goal, again.

Florida tied the game at 7:43 of the second period on a patient goal from captain Aleksander Barkov, who had just served a holding penalty that the Panthers killed off.

Florida's forecheck didn't allow Carolina to clear its defensive zone. As defenseman Josh Mahura kept the puck at the blue line, Barkov snuck behind four Carolina defenders and received a pass alone in front of Raanta. Barkov brilliantly deked Raanta, faking like he was going to shoot the puck through his legs, before waiting out the goalie and beating him with the backhand.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he had never before seen a move like that succeed. As his next line hit the ice after the goal, Maurice said he quickly caught a replay of Barkov's goal on the bench monitor.

"Oh, my god, he just did that. That's so awesome," Maurice said. "It doesn't change. You're a coach in the league for a long time and you still have those absolute fan moments."

On TNT's intermission show, no less a goal-scoring authority as Wayne Gretzky praised Barkov's tally.

"We've all seen guys through the legs now, right? It's become kind of an art. A lot of guys try it. A lot of guys do it. But to see him in a Stanley Cup playoff game -- under the gun, pressure situation, down 1-0 -- to make that move? That's one of the greatest moves I've seen in the Stanley Cup playoffs," Gretzky said.

Barkov was overwhelmed by Gretzky's praise after the game.

"I'm pretty sure he scored a lot of bigger goals, but it's nice coming from him, for sure," said Barkov, who explained that he practiced the move while playing outdoors when he was younger.

Bobrovsky was brilliant in the second period, making key stops on a Paul Stastny deflection and a Teuvo Teravainen shot in close. The third period saw the Panthers' Colin White nearly break the tie, sliding the puck across the crease with Raanta out of his net. The Hurricanes had a power play with just over six minutes remaining but couldn't convert.

By the end of regulation, the score remained 1-1, and Bobrovsky had stopped 35 of 36 shots.

Just 1:51 into overtime, the game was over.

It was the Panthers' first power-play goal in six tries against the Hurricanes' penalty kill, ranked No. 1 in the postseason for a unit that Maurice called "a beast" before Game 2.

"We knew coming into the series we're going to have a whole bunch of power plays that look terrible. But what you can't have is your players losing their confidence and changing the way they think," Maurice said.

The Hurricanes started Raanta after goalie Frederik Andersen played four overtimes in Game 1. Raanta, 34, last appeared in the Hurricanes' Game 5 loss against the New York Islanders on April 25 in the first round; Andersen took over the crease and won Game 6, and he had started every previous game since then.

Andersen and Bobrovsky both played 139 minutes, 47 seconds in Game 1.

Maurice didn't hesitate in naming Bobrovsky his starter for Game 2.

But Brind'Amour indicated after Game 1 that a load-management decision for his goaltenders was under consideration.

"You have to. The guy played the whole game," he said.

Brind'Amour wouldn't commit to Andersen or Raanta for Game 3 on Monday night in Florida, saying he had confidence in both goaltenders.

"We've got two guys we can throw in there. That's certainly not our issue," he said.

The issue is the other goaltender. Bobrovsky has now stopped 100 of 103 shots he has faced in this series for .971 save percentage.

"We haven't gotten a bounce yet," Brind'Amour said. "Hopefully, we'll get one because that's what we're probably going to need."

LAS VEGAS -- Devin Haney retained his undisputed lightweight championship with a unanimous decision over Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday in a fast-paced fight before a sold-out crowd at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Haney (30-0, 15 KOs), who controlled the first half of the fight with his excellent body work and one of boxing's best jabs, prevailed by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. However, Lomachenko closed the fight strong with his trademark flurries from uncanny angles, leading to boisterous boos after the verdict was rendered.

Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) has accomplished so much in his illustrious career: two Olympic gold medals, titles in three divisions and recognition as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But he never achieved his long-held dream of capturing an undisputed championship, and he seemed to indicate that he believed it was stolen from him.

"I don't want to talk about the decision, all [the] people see what happened here today," said Lomachenko, who cried in his locker room afterward before a towel was thrown over his head.

Egas Klimas, Lomachenko's manager, wasn't as subtle, calling the decision a "robbery" and vowing to file an appeal.

"We're not going to let this go," Klimas said. "I guarantee we're going to protest. I guarantee we're going to appeal that decision, because somebody needs to end this injustice."

It has been an emotional journey for Lomachenko, 35, who remained in war-torn Ukraine last year rather than proceed with a deal in place to challenge George Kambosos for the undisputed lightweight championship in Australia. That opened the door for Haney, who quickly accepted the same terms and defeated Kambosos in June to gain all four 135-pound titles.

Haney, 24, defeated Kambosos in Australia in the October rematch, too, and then quickly called out the man he wanted to fight all along: Lomachenko.

At Friday's ceremonial weigh-in, Haney launched Lomachenko with a shove, an act for which he'll be fined from his $4 million guaranteed purse, sources told ESPN. The shove injected plenty of bad blood into a promotion that lacked animosity.

Lomachenko vowed to make Haney pay, and he was able to stun Haney on several occasions with stinging shots delivered from varying angles. But Lomachenko, a typically slow starter, was in a hole after Haney won four of the first six rounds on two scorecards. Lomachenko was able to close strong and won two of the final four rounds on two cards, but what puzzled him was how judge Dave Moretti scored Round 10.

Lomachenko, who earned $3 million, blasted Haney with swarming combinations in the 10th, but Moretti scored it for the champ.

"Maybe I don't understand boxing," Lomachenko joked.

But Haney closed stronger, using his rangy jab and right hands to the body to sweep the final round. It proved to be the difference between a draw and a victory.

"Lomachenko is a future Hall of Famer," said Haney, who is now a free agent after his three-fight deal with Top Rank expired. "He was my toughest opponent by far. He is very crafty, and we put on a great fight for the fans. ... He turns it up in the championship rounds. I just have to take my hat off to him."

Haney said attacking the body was one of the keys to victory.

"The body work won me the fight, so I knew I had to invest in that body," he said. "We watched a lot of tape on Loma, he wasn't the biggest fan of body shots, so we stuck to the game plan, breaking him down."

Haney added: "He would have some good moments during the round, but he wasn't finishing the whole round strong because we invested in the body."

The bout between boxing's two best lightweights and two of the sport's top pound-for-pound fighters was competed at the highest level, entertained the fans and left them clamoring for more because of the nature of the decision. A rematch seems like a natural, but it's far from a formality.

"I've been at 135 [pounds] for a long, long time," said Haney, ESPN's No. 10 pound-for-pound boxer. "This is my 30th fight. I've been here at 135 since I was 16 years old. We're going to go back to the lab and figure out what's next."

What could lie ahead for Haney is a move to 140 pounds and a potential bout against the winner of the June 10 title fight between Josh Taylor and Teofimo Lopez. Haney said before the fight he would remain at lightweight for only one more fight, potentially, if it was against Gervonta Davis or Shakur Stevenson.

Stevenson was ringside and said afterward that he believed the judges delivered the wrong decision.

"Lomachenko should be undisputed champion -- he won that fight," said Stevenson, ESPN's No. 9 pound-for-pound boxer. "He landed the cleaner punches. He pushed the pace."

But it's Haney who remains at home in Las Vegas with all the titles and moves onto bigger and better fights. Lomachenko, too, was a winner in many ways. An underdog heading into the fight after his flat performance against Jamaine Ortiz in October, Lomachenko reminded everyone of his greatness and proved that he's still an elite fighter.

There are still plenty of great matchups for Lomachenko in the star-studded lightweight division even if a rematch with Haney doesn't materialize.

The two fighters put together a bout that will be discussed for years, a rare PPV boxing match that exceeded the expectations and delivered a thrilling, evenly competed fight at the highest level.

Los Angeles Lakers center Mo Bamba, who hasn't played since the first round of the playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies as he deals with a left ankle injury, is expected to be cleared for a return as soon as Game 4 or 5 of the Western Conference finals, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bamba has missed nine straight playoff games, including Game 3 on Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets.

A 7-foot center, Bamba could offer a Lakers team lacking size in its rotation another option on Nuggets superstar big man Nikola Jokic.

Bamba has played limited minutes for the Lakers this season since his acquisition from the Orlando Magic at the trade deadline back in February.

The Lakers head into Game 3 trailing the Nuggets 2-0 as the series shifts to Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES -- For the third time in as many games in the Western Conference finals, the outcome was up for grabs in the fourth quarter and the Los Angeles Lakers couldn't complete the task.

Saturday's 119-108 loss to fall down 3-0 to the West's No. 1 seed might have contained different details than L.A.'s two defeats in Denver to begin the series, but the general theme was the same: The Nuggets did more when it mattered most.

And now, one loss away from their season being over, a Lakers team that started the season 2-10 and completely overhauled the roster just before the All-Star break, is hoping it has one more improbable run left in them.

"Just got to get one," said LeBron James who finished with 23 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds but missed 11 out of 19 shots -- including four out of six in the fourth quarter. "Just one at a time. Just focus on Game 4, and you know, that's all you can really think about."

If there was one game to win, Saturday seemed attainable. The Lakers were at home, where they had yet to lose this postseason. Nuggets star Nikola Jokic had as many fouls as made field goals (four) through the first three quarters. Anthony Davis (28 points on 11-for-18 shooting, 18 rebounds) was impactful.

But with the game hanging in the balance, the Nuggets took it, using a 13-0 run from the 7:48 mark of the fourth quarter until there was 4:50 remaining to put it out of the Lakers' reach. Jokic, with 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the fourth, was the best player on the court to close it.

NBA teams are 0-149 when trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series and the Lakers as a franchise have never even forced a Game 5 when in this position, going 0-8 in these scenarios, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information.

L.A. trailed by three in the final minute in both Games 1 and 2. And the Lakers had their chances in Game 3, taking the lead in the fourth. The Nuggets have edged the Lakers consistently enough to turn a seemingly small margin between the two teams into a wide gap heading into Game 4.

"I think it's been the timely shots by their role players," James said when asked what he felt like the difference has been.

To James' point, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (17 points), Bruce Brown (15 points) and Michael Porter Jr. (14 points) all had their moments on Saturday. According to data compiled by ESPN Stats & Information, Brown is 8-for-13 (3-for-7 on 3s); Caldwell-Pope is 11-for-17 (5-of-11 on 3s) and Porter Jr. is 8-for-15 (7-for-11 on 3s) on open shots in the series.

The Lakers didn't get the same well-rounded contributions from their roster in Game 3, with D'Angelo Russell (three points on 1-for-8 shooting), Jarred Vanderbilt (two points on 1-for-4) and Dennis Schroder (five points on 2-for-5) all struggling on offense.

"For me? Oh, I don't know," Russell said when asked what he needs to change in his approach to be effective against Denver. "I really don't. I don't know. I'll try to figure it out."

The Lakers have done a pretty good job of figuring things out on the fly this season, first securing a spot in the play-in tournament with a group of fresh faces while James missed a month late in the season with a foot injury, then becoming just the second No. 7 seed ever to reach the conference finals. They sounded dedicated to the uphill climb they've been on so long as there are still games on the schedule.

"We can either come out Monday and go home or we can fight for another day, and with the group of guys that we've got, I know what that answer will be," said Austin Reaves, who topped 20 points for the third time in three games in the series.

The odds are not in L.A.'s favor, of course. Nearly two thirds of the teams ever to be down 3-0, got swept (91 out of 149). Only three out of those teams even forced a Game 7.

The Lakers will conduct a film session Sunday and arrive to work Monday for Game 4, hoping to extend the season to Tuesday and beyond.

"Circumstances are what they are," Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. "Difficult but not impossible."

LOS ANGELES -- After the biggest road win in franchise history, Jamal Murray wanted to remind the Denver Nuggets that the true goal is still five more victories.

Even though the Nuggets moved within one win of their first trip to the NBA Finals by stunning the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday with a 119-108 Game 3 victory, Murray made sure his team understood the season-long objective of winning a first championship is still further away after the Nuggets took a commanding 3-0 lead in this best-of-7 series.

"Just keeping everybody in the moment," Murray said. "Not letting it slip away. You need 16 wins to win a championship and we got five more to go and the Lakers are in our way and they are going to do everything in their power to come back and fight."

Once again, it was the Nuggets' tandem of Murray and Nikola Jokic that proved to be too much for the Lakers. Following his massive fourth quarter against the Lakers in Game 2, when he scored 23 points, Murray picked up where he left off by hitting 8 of his first 10 shots and scoring 30 points in the first half.

Murray finished with 37 points as the Lakers did everything they could to slow the point guard in the second half. But Jokic put the Lakers away in the fourth by scoring 15 of his 24 points to overcome earlier foul trouble.

For the second straight fourth quarter in this series, the Nuggets hit big 3-point shots. Jokic, Murray, Michael Porter Jr. (14 points, 10 rebounds, six assists), Bruce Brown (15 points) and Jeff Green all knocked down a 3 in the final 7:26 to turn a one-point Lakers lead into a 117-103 Nuggets' cushion with 1:06 remaining.

After Jokic buried his triple with 3:17 to go, he uncharacteristically showed some emotion as he shouted words on his way downcourt.

Jokic had his triple-double streak of four straight games snapped when he finished with 24 points, eight assists and six rebounds. He was scoreless in the first quarter and had just nine points while shooting 4-for-12 in the first three quarters.

But the Lakers couldn't capitalize on the two-time MVP's early shooting struggles or Jokic's foul trouble after he picked up his fourth personal with 7:24 remaining in the third quarter.

The Lakers were unable to draw another foul off Jokic, who asserted himself in the fourth and made 5-of-7 shots. Jokic also made his presence felt on the sideline.

"Nikola, you can't keep him down for a whole game," Denver coach Michael Malone said. "The end of the game, him and Jamal were playing a two-man game. I have to [give] credit where credit is due: That was Nikola's call.

"He said on the bench, let's go to this play. Let me and Jamal play the whole side of the floor, and we'll make the right reads. We milked that down the stretch. Coach Jokic did a great job tonight."

Afterward, Jokic wasn't done sounding like a coach even if he says, "I don't want to be a coach" and that he thinks coaching is "the worst job on the planet, for sure."

Jokic expressed concern about what will be the Nuggets' biggest game in franchise history, trying to close out a desperate Lakers team.

"To be honest, I'm not going to say that I'm scared, but I'm worried," Jokic said of Game 4. "Because they have LeBron [James] on the other side, and he is capable of doing everything. We're going to come here with the same mindset, same focus, and I think that's going to put us in a situation to win a game.

"But we never know. They're going to be aggressive. Of course, they're going to be extra physical. They're going to run more, everything is going to be on different level or one more of anything. So, we will see."

LOS ANGELES -- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has memories of the summer of 2020. Fuzzy ones, such as staying in L.A. and playing video games with his teammates. General ones, such as working out at private gyms to stay in shape as the NBA world tried to figure out a way to continue its season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

That time in his life and our world still affects us. But one important memory is how close he and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates stayed.

"I feel like we were the only team that stayed together during that COVID time," Caldwell-Pope told ESPN after scoring 17 points for the Denver Nuggets in Saturday's 119-108 win against the Lakers, which gave his new team a commanding 3-0 lead over his old team in the Western Conference finals.

"If we weren't with each other, we were in the group chat. We were really close."

Led by LeBron James (second in 2020 MVP voting) and a defensive trio of Caldwell-Pope, Anthony Davis and Alex Caruso, the Lakers had been the best team in the conference when play stopped in mid-March.

And all of that showed during their championship run inside the NBA's Orlando bubble, where they beat the Nuggets in a hard-fought, six-game conference finals.

At the time, it felt like the first of many playoff battles between the two teams. But through three games, the background story of this rematch has been how differently each has spent the two seasons since that playoff clash.

The Nuggets have gotten stronger, deeper and healthier this season, while the Lakers have expended so much energy trying to recreate the team they had in 2020, they seem to be running out of gas at exactly the wrong time.

Denver is too good to lose a turnover battle 12-5 as the Lakers did Saturday. The Nuggets are too deep to send double-teams at Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray each possession (although Murray's 30-point first half certainly strained the credulity of that choice).

No player exemplifies the change between the two franchises since their last conference finals matchup more than Caldwell-Pope. During his time in L.A., he was mostly known -- in the words of general manager Rob Pelinka -- as "manna from heaven," because signing him as a free agent helped pave the way to land James as a free agent in 2018.

Caldwell-Pope's defensive contributions and 3-point shot-making were often taken for granted, and very little was said when he was included in the Russell Westbrook deal with the Washington Wizards in the summer of 2021.

For Denver, though, he is a critical role player. The team even sent him to the podium after Saturday's Game 3.

Not only did he score 10 points in the third quarter as the Nuggets held off a furious Lakers rally, his steal of D'Angelo Russell's ill-advised crosscourt pass with 4:19 remaining in the period was one of the most deflating plays seen inside Crypto.com Arena all season.

"I learn a lot about this team every time we play," Caldwell-Pope said. "We have that resilience, that dog mentality, where no matter if we're up or down, we're going to continue to fight and play our game."

After that steal, Caldwell-Pope handed the ball off to Murray, who found a streaking Bruce Brown for an easy tip-in shot to extend Denver's lead to 75-71. Brown, the other key offseason acquisition for the Nuggets, continued to make his mark on this series with 15 points off the bench. Among them was a backbreaking 3-pointer with 7:02 remaining in the game to stretch the Nuggets' lead to 99-94 and effectively end the Lakers' rally.

Brown sensed it too, turning to the Lakers bench with an "ice-water-in-my-veins" motion.

Russell was the first to popularize that gesture during his first stint in L.A. (2015 to 2017), making Brown's taunt a continuation of the trash talk he has directed at Russell, who has struggled mightily and is now minus-53 in this series.

There will be a robust discussion about Russell's value to the Lakers this offseason, when he will be a free agent. But that discussion should include the fact he only played in 17 regular-season games for the Lakers since coming over in a three-team trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz -- hardly enough time to find a consistent and comfortable role within the offense.

That midseason deal, in addition to the trade for Rui Hachimura with the Wizards, is a large part of why the Lakers have advanced to the conference finals after starting the season 2-10. The team finally had shooters to space the floor around James and Davis and versatile defenders to form the backbone of what's become the NBA's best defense in the playoffs.

But "midseason" is not the best description. There were only 26 games remaining in the season when that trade was made and a giant hill to climb, little time to form the kind of bonds Caldwell-Pope remembers from that 2020 team.

Denver, on the other hand, has had all season to come together, in addition to the five years the core of Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have been together.

"This team is playoff-tested," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "This is five years in a row we've advanced out of the first round -- except last year when we lost to the eventual world champion in Golden State [Warriors].

"But most importantly, we're healthy."

The Nuggets didn't tear up their roster when Murray was lost for over a year with a knee injury and Porter Jr. missed time following back surgery. They rallied around the brilliance of Jokic and used the time to get deeper with additions such as Caldwell-Pope and Brown.

The Lakers had a similar decision to make when both Davis and James missed extensive time with various injuries the past two seasons. But they did not have the luxury of patience, and broke up their depth to trade for a third star (Westbrook), who they hoped would fill in when one or both James and Davis missed time.

That was a failure they've spent the past year and a half trying to fix.

For most of the playoffs, it seemed like they had. The new additions had been revelatory, taking star turns throughout series wins against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Warriors.

But now there is Caldwell-Pope, smiling back at the Lakers from the other side of the court, reminding them of the ill-fated trade they thought they'd put behind them.